Exercising is a popular activity for maintaining fitness and promoting overall good health. Numerous options exist for exercising, such as jogging, hiking, cycling, weight training, racquetball, and many others. In the area of weight training, for example, free-standing bars, dumbbells, weight plates, and other heavy objects have long been used as part of exercise routines aimed at improving muscular strength and endurance. In addition, machines have been developed for providing weight training exercises. While some of these machines are large and costly, and are therefore usually found in fitness clubs, others are small and less expensive, and are generally more likely found in homes and offices. Thus, exercise equipment that can mount on a wall or on a door in a home or office provides an alternative to the larger and more costly machines.
In U.S. Pat. No. 232,579, which is an early example of wall-mounted fitness equipment, a partially elastic cord is passed around pulleys, which are mounted on a wall. A user grasps the cord and exerts his strength against the resistance provided by the elastic portion of the cord to perform exercises. The pulleys are mounted to the wall by a screw or hook, and therefore represent a permanent or semi-permanent installation on the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 689,418 is also an early example of fitness equipment and discloses a door-mounted exercising machine that extends between the top and bottom of a door. The exercising machine uses a collection of elastic cords to provide resistance-based exercise. In particular, the collection of elastic cords is connected with a holder, and a cord passes through a pulley on the holder. The cord also passes through additional pulleys that are situated in an appropriate position on the door so that handles on the cord are presented for grasping by a user. A user grasps the cord by its handles and exerts his strength against the resistance provided by the collection of elastic cords to perform exercises.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,907 discloses another example of door-mounted fitness equipment. Pulleys are mounted to clips that extend over the top of a door, and a cord is passed over each pulley. A weight is attached at one end of each cord, and a handle at the other. A user grasps the handle of each cord and exerts his strength against the resistance provided by the weights to perform exercises.
Door-mounted fitness equipment has continued to develop from these early examples and the marketplace currently provides several popular products. For example, the “Tower 200” product sold by the Body By Jake company and the “Weider X-Factor” product sold by the Weider Fitness company are both door-mounted devices that use elastic cords and can be configured to provide a variety of exercise movements. For example, a user can grasp handles from several positions to perform exercises such as chest presses, shoulder presses, pull-downs, abdominal crunches, and many others. However, these particular devices come pre-assembled with elastic cords that provide a limited amount of resistance that some users may find insufficient, or in some cases, excessive. Where insufficient resistance is provided, a user will not be able to achieve a maximal level of exertion and may not receive exercise commensurate with his abilities. Alternatively, the resistance provided by a particular device may be excessive. As a result, the user will not be able to use the device, and therefore will be deprived of its benefits. The construction of such devices may not allow for adjustment of the resistance. Thus, the user cannot easily replace or modify the elastic cords so as to be able to change the amount of resistance provided thereby.
Also, in these particular devices, the upper components that attach to the top of the door are pre-assembled and connected by the cords to the lower components that attach to the bottom of the door. As a result of this connected and pre-assembled configuration, the entire collection of upper components, lower components, and cords must be handled at the same time. In other words, a user cannot install the upper components onto a door without at the same time contending with the lower components and the cords, which can make installation, storage, and transportation of the devices somewhat cumbersome.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in the door-mounted fitness equipment technology area that address one or more of the shortcomings presented by the prior art.